New Black Panther Party president Malik Zulu Shabazz hasn’t said much publicly about the Obama Justice Department’s dismissal last May of voter intimidation charges against his black power group, a decision that sparked conservative protests.

But last week in a podcast interview, Shabazz let loose – with a racially tinged rant against the Republicans he said are trying to turn the issue into campaign ads for this fall’s midterm elections.

“These right-wing white, red-faced, red-neck Republicans are attacking the hell out of the New Black Panther Party, and we’re organizing now to fight back,” Shabazz told the podcast host, a man who calls himself “Brother Gary” and hosts a show called Conscious Chats on Blogtalk Radio.

Shabazz singled out GOP Reps. Frank Wolf (Va.) and Lamar Smith (Texas) — two critics on the House Judiciary Committee — along with “Old Uncle Tom, Michael Steele, the black Negro who heads the Republican National Committee.”

“We gearing up for a showdown with this cracker,” Shabazz said, although it wasn’t clear to whom he was referring. “He keep talking – we going to Capitol Hill, we’re just gearing up right now, we’ll go to Capitol Hill.”

At issue is an incident at a majority-black polling place in Philadelphia in November 2008, where two members of the anti-white and anti-semitic fringe group stood in military-style garb, one of them carrying a night stick.

The Black Panther with a night stick left the premises after the police were called. The unarmed Black Panther stayed on; he held a Democratic poll watching certificate issued by the local board of elections.

A blogger hired by the local Republican Party made a video of the incident that was uploaded to YouTube. Then in January, in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Shabazz, his Washington, D.C.-based party, and the two New Black Panthers at the polling place, alleging voter intimidation.

No actual voters came forward to complain – the objections came from white Republican poll watchers. The suit was compiled by a Civil Rights Division lawyer named J. Christian Adams, who has a history of conservative advocacy and was hired during the Bush administration under process the DOJ Inspector General later concluded was improperly politicized.

In May, after the Black Panthers failed to contest the suit, the Barack Obama Justice Department dismissed most of the charges, obtaining an injunction against the New Black Panther member who’d carried the night stick.

But conservatives were outraged, with Reps. Wolf and Smith asking the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate whether politics played a role in the decision to dismiss the case. And now the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is dominated by conservatives, is also investigating.

In the podcast interview, Shabazz said that Republicans are trying to make it look as if the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder were favoring the New Black Panther Party.

“People know that’s crazy as hell, they don’t owe us no favors,” said Shabazz. “If the Obama people thought we were their political allies, they would run in the other direction because we don’t give them no political help.”

One of the members of the party in Philadelphia, he added, “just happened to be a little too black or too strong” and “made a mistake” by bringing a weapon to the polls.

“They are beating these war drums – it’s constantly on the front page of the Washington Times [...] and I’m expecting some ads with the New Black Panther Party for midterm elections in 2010,” Shabazz said.

44 Comments

If you are sooo blak and sooo strong and sooo ready to rise up why don’t you first try rising up at day break instead of noon and getting a job??

And yes when you anger us krackers enough and threaten us with war you will find out we are willing to die for our beliefs instead of running like blaks have historically done as witnessed in every world war we have allowed them to fight in.

Yes, you are 9% and we will put you down and down FAST. Who cares about
the other blaks around the world they will not be able or willing to come to your aid. (see above) Keep pushing and we will just round you up and march you into the nearest sea.

Remember the “king alfred/rex 84 plan” some of you are aware of?
Keep it in mind. You other ignorant darkies better google it before
your mouths end up writing checks your ass can’t cash.

Insted of whining about slabery be grateful other wise you would still
be over there with the others bathing in living in mud huts, bathing in cow urine and eating cow menstruation instead of KFC.

Instead of spouting off to and committing horrendous crimes against whites try thanking them for everything we have and continue to provide you with.

Heather,You ignorant slut :You should really invest in a really good history class. First of all, you should learn that “your” people are the ones that sold your ancestors into slavery. The white man did not come over and scoop up a bunch and toss them into a ship. So if you and the rest of the black men in America want to be angry, then be angry at your ancestors in Africa that sold you. Also, I hate to break it to you, but African Americans are not he only race in the world to ever be used as slaves. Did you know that the Alba, Scots, Irish and Pics have been the longest race held in slavery. GASP! That’s right, a WHITE race has been enslaved longer then the African Americans were. ALSO white slavery was alive in America as well. Thomas Burton recorded in his Parliament Diary 1656-1659 vol. 4 pp. 253-274 a debate in the English Parliament focusing on the selling of British whites into slavery in the New World. (aka AMERICA) Close to TWO-THIRDS of the orginal colony came in against their will, to be used as slaves. It’s a shame this information will always remain OUT of the text books in our local schools.

The point of this my friend, is that the slavery excuse is old, unfounded and well, quite boring. You didn’t suffer, your grandparents didnt suffer, your great-grandparents didn’t suffer and well, quite far back didn’t suffer. You weren’t the only race to be enslaved and your own kind is what put you in that position. This is the main issue of your race today, you are too concerned with crying about what happened to your ancestors and using misbelief to justify your disgusting and unruly actions today. As far as your question about racism being alive today, I absolutely believe there is. However the tables have turns as I see and experience more racism from blacks to whites, then I do from whites to blacks. Read the statistics on the amount of hate crimes committed and that may shut you up. Young people today have no reason to be angry because NOTHING has happened to “them”.There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do do not want to lose their jobs.
Booker T. Washington
Racism will never end because there are still too many blacks and whites that keep the fires stoked. I’m not apologizing. I don’t think it was right but I didn’t own any slaves and I’m sure that none of my poor white relatives did either. In fact, of the 6,000,000 whites in the south, only 385,000 owned slaves. That’s about 6.4% and although most slave owners were white, some were black, but you never hear about that. If it’s equality we are after, then let’s be equal. Think about this: new TV channel WET (White Entertainment Television), the NAAWP, White People’s Choice Award, White Enterprise Award, Ivory Magazine, American White Journal, get it? I’m not saying that these crazy ideas are right, I’m saying why do we have any that are black biased. Why does it have to be African-American and not just American? By the late 1700’s, only a tiny fraction of slaves came from Africa. Truth be known, most Blacks have deeper American roots than a lot of Whites. Look; drop the hypenated title, cancel all the entertainment junk that promotes one particular race, abolish any agency that sole interest is promoting one race based on color and let’s all be REAL Americans OR stop the complaining if every race decides to define themselves as loudly as yours. I think the Civil War was about 145 years ago.